According to Tommy DiCordova (Carson's manager/producer for 30+ years) Letterman was Carson's choice not Leno. Letterman was guest host of the Tonight Show 50+ times after Carson's falling out with Joan Rivers. (she was Johnny's permanent guest host until then). Leno and Letterman have not spoken to each other (they were very good friends and co writers for a couple of shows together) since Leno bypassed Letterman to toad the show over. Carons only granted two intviews after he left NBC. Once for 60 Minutes and once on a surprise appearance on David Letterman's show when he moved to CBS. Leno never even mentioned Carson on his first show as the new host. (I have it on tape) and if nothing else that speaks volumes (at least to me). There was an article in the NY or LA Times a few days ago stating these facts as well but I do have friends in the biz (although I am not). I didn't care for Leno at first but His style has changed over the years to where he is more relaxed and less scripted then he originally was. Letterman has turned into a grumpy old man most of the time. I don't care for his show anymore.

I keep hearing "Carson's choice" as though he had a choice. It wasn't his show anymore then it was Letterman's, Leno's or Conan's. It's NBC's show. However, by giving the show back to Leno, NBC is in violation of their contract with Conan and Conan's legendary 40M is due compensation.

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 01-30-2010).]

quote Originally posted by OKflyboy: I keep hearing "Carson's choice" as though he had a choice. It wasn't his show anymore then it was Letterman's, Leno's or Conan's. It's NBC's show. However, by giving the show back to Leno, NBC is in violation of their contract with Conan and Conan's legendary 40M is due compensation.

On the contrary, while Carson was on the air he owned all rights to the Tonight Show and retained rights to every show he appeared in. Further his production company produced the show. It was a condition NBC agreed to keep Johnny from retiring. NBC at the time was paying for the rights to air his shows. IIRC it is the only time in NBC's history that this was the case and they stated that they would never again make such an arrangement. As for NBC being in breech of contract, I agree as they were with Leno before that. NBC couldn't have screwed this up worse.

[This message has been edited by infinitewill (edited 01-31-2010).]

quote Originally posted by infinitewill: On the contrary, while Carson was on the air he owned all rights to the Tonight Show and retained rights to every show he appeared in. Further his production company produced the show. It was a contition NBC agreed to keep Johnny from retiring. NBC at the time was paying for the rights to air his shows. IIRC it is the only time in NBC's history that this was the case and they stated that they would never again make such an arrangement.

I'll be damned... I didn't know that.

(Crow tastes like chicken...)

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 01-30-2010).]

Here is an article, I received in an email, explaining why the viewership of Leno and Conan was down. It actually wasn't, the shows were being watched by other means.

quote Last month, Conan O'Brien hosted his last ever "Tonight Show," only seven months after inheriting the franchise from Jay Leno. NBC's decision to move Leno back to his late-night spot, with the side effect of getting rid of Conan, was mostly about ratings. Neither Leno nor Conan had high enough viewership to justify giving them the airtime they were getting. In the Sunday New York Times published two days after that last show, an article headlined "O'Brien Undone by His Media-Hopping Fans" picked apart some of the reasons "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" didn't garner more viewers. The article posited that some of Conan's biggest "problems" were the unconventional media-consumption habits of his most enthusiastic demographic: younger viewers. Though he was popular with 18-34 year olds, the article said, "regularly assembling those young adult viewers in significant numbers in the late-night hours has become a daunting, if not impossible, task." The primary reason, as set forth in the Times article, is the number of alternative entertainment options available to those "media-hopping" viewers. Those include other TV shows; at 11:35 pm, when "The Tonight Show" aired, 18-34 year olds were as likely to be watching "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central, Adult Swim cartoons on the Cartoon Network or sports programming on ESPN. In Conan's first six months on "The Tonight Show," he averaged 719,000 viewers under 35, versus 746,000 for the satirical news show "The Colbert Report." A newer source of "competition" was also mentioned in the article though: "Add to all the other issues the fact that Mr. O'Brien's young fans did not really have to watch television to see him. His shows were made available later on Web sites like Hulu. And his best comedy bits would frequently be posted on other sites--and passed around by fans--shortly after they appeared." That four-line paragraph was the article's only mention of watching TV online, but if we're discussing the viewing habits of young media hoppers, I think it deserves much more attention. That may be because, six months ago, I canceled my TV subscription and had a Time Warner Cable representative disconnect my cable box and take it away. I still pay Time Warner Cable for Internet, but my bill is now about $40 less every month. This step may seem extreme to some, but it was a logical decision after months of under-watching my $40 worth of TV channels. The reason wasn't, by any means, a lack of interest in television. I enjoy a number of TV shows, including "fake news" shows "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," the fabulous period drama "Mad Men" and sitcoms including "The Office," "Parks and Recreation" and "30 Rock." I also watched "The Tonight Show" occasionally while Conan was on it (but will likely never watch Leno). However, because I never watched "The Tonight Show" at 11:35 on NBC, I wasn't one of the 700,000 or so viewers counted by NBC. In fact, until three weeks ago, I thought "The Tonight Show" was on at 11. --- As the Times article reported, we now live in a world of near-infinite entertainment options. In my mind, the days of sitting down in front of the television when my favorite shows are on (or worse, sitting down and flipping channels to see what's on) are over. Instead, I sit on my couch when I'm ready to relax, whether that's 6:10 p.m. or 1 a.m., and decide what I want to watch. And my options are, if not infinite, far greater than the number of TV shows on cable at that moment. If I want to watch Jon Stewart skewer hypocritical politicians on the previous night's "Daily Show," I turn on my flat-screen TV and switch the input to a computer running the free operating system Linux. What might be called an entertainment PC, this computer is dedicated solely to delivering content to my TV. It cost about $500 to build, the price of about a year of cable. From there, I can choose one of three different ways to watch "The Daily Show." The first is to launch the computer's browser and navigate to Comedy Central's Web site, where I can watch clips from any show from the "Daily Show" archives. I can watch the last few weeks of shows from start to finish in HD. These shows are completely free and interrupted by only a few short advertisements. (Also on Comedy Central's Web site, completely free, are full episodes of "The Colbert Report" and "South Park" and clips of many other shows, as well as Web-exclusive stand-up shows and shorts.) My second option is to go to Hulu, a Web site that officially launched in 2008, and a joint venture of NBC, Fox and ABC. Currently, the site provides completely free access to shows from the three owner-networks as well as Comedy Central, USA Network, Bravo, Syfy, A&E and more. All the videos are free (for now) and are interrupted by a minimal amount of advertising, usually no more than two minutes of ads per half-hour show. And because Hulu is engineered to run on a computer, some of the ads are interactive, allowing viewers to choose ads that most interest them or follow links to advertisers' Web sites. By some accounts, this increased potential for user engagement means Hulu can charge more for ads than TV networks can. However, rumors about ad rates vary widely. The third way I can watch "The Daily Show" is similar to both the first and second, but involves an additional step. Instead of going directly to Comedy Central's Web site or Hulu, I can launch an application on my entertainment PC called Boxee. Boxee is a completely free application that anyone can download at www.boxee.tv. It is designed to run on entertainment PCs just like mine, where it makes watching content over the Internet as easy as watching TV. To watch "The Daily Show" on Boxee, I go to the TV Shows page and search for it or select it from my personalized list of favorite shows. Boxee then offers me the option to stream the show from Hulu or from Comedy Central's Web site. Both are instant, and contain the same ads, or lack thereof, that are on the site the show is coming from. Boxee's real advantage though, is the diversity of content it finds and allows me to play on my TV. The TV Shows page includes streaming content from dozens of Web sites, including Hulu, Comedy Central, NBC and Fox. It also includes TV shows I've downloaded from the iTunes store or elsewhere. I can search for a specific show I want to watch, or browse the page to see what shows have recently added new episodes. I can also watch movies from my personal collection, Hulu or other online sources. After watching TV shows, I use Boxee second most often for playing music. Through Boxee, I can listen to so-called "Internet radio" from Pandora or Last.fm, Web sites that create personalized playlists based on your music preferences. I can also listen to music I've copied to the PC. Finally, dozens of applications expand Boxee's functionality beyond TV and music, by providing access to third party content. Some of my favorites include The Onion News Network application (or app), which streams the satirical "news" clips available only on the Onion Web site; The BBC News app, which includes hundreds of up-to-date BBC News podcasts; and The Big Picture app, which is a smooth interface for viewing the Boston Globe's daily photo essay feature, The Big Picture, full screen on my HD TV (it's even better than on their Web site!). There are dozens more apps with functions I'm not even aware of.

[This message has been edited by avengador1 (edited 02-04-2010).]

quote Originally posted by avengador1: Here is an article, I received in an emai,l explaining why the viewership of Leno and Conan was down. It actually wasn't -- the shows were being watched by other means.

Nothing in that quote substantiates your statement, other than one person's revelation regarding what HE was doing, and most of that seems to be an ad for Boxee. hula etc.
Basically a "well, it "could" have happened this way...

It's a big jump from that to--this is definitively what really happened..

It may be a wrong conclusion for the over 34 crowd, but I don't think it is so far fetched for the 18-34 crowd. That is the group NBC was hoping to capture with Conan.

I have been recording Leno's show since he started in the 10 o'clock time slot. I really liked it. I hope he keeps his same skits when he goes back to the tonight show.